My name is Dave Stancliff. Walk down the road of life with me each day. You'll find news and my views. I'm a veteran, an independent thinker, and a former newspaper publisher and editor.
This blog is not about making money. It's a forum to share with. All views expressed are mine, unless I note otherwise.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Understanding the deep hatred between the Palestinians & Jews

Good Day World!

The world does not understand what it’s like to be a Jew in an Arab world. Israel stands alone in the midst of it’s traditional enemies.

Civilized countries are appalled at the terrible civilian toll this latest war is taking. The Palestinian people are caught between a defiant terrorist organization – Hamas – and Israel.

When Hamas decided to lob hundreds of rockets into Israel the response was automatic; the Jews struck back harder.

The rockets continue to come despite the Israeli Defense Forces retaliatory invasion of the Gaza strip. The battle has settled into urban guerilla warfare – something that Hamas has been planning for a long time.

The battleground has shifted below the earth’s surface into tunnels where Hamas soldiers slink in the dark looking for targets behind their enemies lines. There is no end in sight.

Peace between the two adversaries seems impossible. The deep-seated hatreds on both sides will take generations to heal if a peace process ever takes root.

To illustrate this deeply ingrained hatred here’s a short story:

“Arieh Eldad is a medical doctor specializing in plastic surgery and a member of Israel's Knesset. He served as the Director of Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem's Department of Plastic Surgery from 2000 to 2003 and is the Founder and Chairman of the Israeli Burn Association.

Eldad wrote about a burn patient who became a suicide bomber:

On 20 June 2005, twenty-one-year-old Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss was detained at a crossing into Israel when something about her gait struck the guards on duty at that post as somewhat amiss.

This Palestinian woman was arrested after a search revealed she had been carrying 22 lbs. of explosives strapped to her body.

While al-Biss had ostensibly been attempting to enter Israel to attend a follow-up appointment at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, questioning revealed that it had been her intent to detonate the payload she'd been carrying at that institution.

The would-be bomber had been treated there five months previous for severe burns received after a gas canister exploded on a fire while she was cooking at her refugee camp home in the Gaza Strip.” (source/Snopes)

This story is shocking because it assails our Western way of thinking. We think, How could someone repay such kindness with such hate?” We’re appalled that someone would commit suicide in order to kill others.

The answer lies in generations of fear and hatred. Without being a Palestinian, or an Israeli Jew, there’s no way anyone else can understand. All the world can do is watch innocent people die over an ideological battleground.